Once Upon a Time: My Life with Children's Books Sheila Egoff with Wendy K. Sutton The memoir of a children's librarian, a reader, a teacher and a critic. In Once Upon a Time:My Life with Children's Books Sheila Egoff tells the story of her working life, from her early voracious reading, through all her significant contributions to libraries i... more »n Canada and to our national understanding of our own literature for children. She brings both a critical eye and a personal touch to this book, which reads as a memoir and as an account of important developments in Canadian writing and librarianship. In this time of cuts to budgets for books and for librarians, there is much here to reflect upon. Sheila Egoff discovered the public library in her hometown of Galt, Ontario at age eight, almost eighty years ago. Her love of books led to a life devoted to the promotion of children's literature and librarianship. Sheila was the first curator of the famous Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books, which she was also partly responsible for bringing to Canada. In 1962, she moved west to help set up the library school at the University of British Columbia. Many of today's children's librarians credit Sheila with instilling in them a philosophy of librarianship that values literary quality and bringing books to each and every child. Sheila is the author of several important books about Canadian children's literature. She passed away in May 2005. Wendy K. Sutton taught for many years in the Faculty of Education at UBC. She is the co-chair of the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable and is an authority on children's literature, especially picture books. She co-authored Only Connect: Readings on Children's Literature with Sheila Egoff and The Gift of Reading with David Bouchard.« less